Georgia State University Magazine, Fall 2016 by Georgia State University Magazine

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M A G A Z I N E

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N E W A G E O F

Georgia State has emerged as a leading research university capable of addressing the most challenging issues of our time.

D I S C O V E R Y

HELP LIGHT THE WAY We’ve reached a defining moment in Georgia State’s history. The university has become a national model for closing the achievement gap, and we’re driving the revitalization of downtown Atlanta. We’re lighting the way to a brighter future, but we need your help to get there.

Find ways to give at

BURNINGBRIGHT.GSU.EDU

CONTENTS 9 The Equestrian Elisa Wallace (B.A. ’05) is a competitive horseback rider, trainer and mustang advocate. 11 Urban Pioneer Brian Egan (B.F.A. ’12) of the Mammal Gallery is helping bring life back to south downtown.

28 DETERMINED

Parris Lee scored Georgia State's first touchdown in 2010. Today, he's playing pro ball in an unlikely locale — Serbia.

14 Writing Studio Five Points, Georgia State’s literary magazine, is turning 20, and Megan Sexton (M.F.A. ’93, Ph.D. ’98) keeps it at the top of its game.

RESEARCH ENTERPRISE Georgia State's research profile has more than doubled in the last five years.

NO BOUNDS The campus footprint keeps growing and shaping Atlanta's downtown cityscape.

ON THE COVER

Priya Luthra, a research assistant professor, eyes antiviral compounds. COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY JOSH MEISTER; THIS PAGE PHOTOGRAPH BY EDWARD LINSMIER

M A G A Z I N E. G S U. E D U

FROM THE PRESIDENT It is incredibly gratifying to see the energy tens of thousands of students are bringing to our Georgia State campuses across the metro area.

FOR THE RECORDS

E’RE OFF TO another terrific start to the academic year at Georgia State University. This fall, we welcomed our largest, most academically qualified freshman class in the institution’s history, and we began our first full academic year with Perimeter College integrated into the university. On our Atlanta campus, more than 3,700 freshmen enrolled this fall, up from 3,350 in 2015. This year’s class was selected from a record pool of more than 17,000 applicants, an increase of 28 percent over last fall. Georgia State is increasingly becoming the destination of choice for thousands of high school graduates in Georgia. Including Perimeter College, 6,100 freshmen are enrolled at Georgia State, bringing our student body to more than 50,000 students, the largest in Georgia and one of the largest in the nation. It has been great to see students across our campuses sporting blue-and-white gear and showing their Panther pride. This year, there are more than 5,300 students living on campus downtown with the recent opening of a new 1,152-bed residence hall, Piedmont Central, at the cor-

GEORGIA STATE’S STUDENT BODY AND INCOMING FRESHMAN CLASS ARE THE LARGEST EVER. ner of John Wesley Dobbs and Piedmont avenues. As more and more students live on or very near campus the vitality and excitement of our student body become more and more evident. The opening of Piedmont Central makes it possible for us to house 20 percent of our downtown undergraduate student body on campus. This has been a goal in our capital plan for a number of years, because data show students living in university housing have higher graduation rates and grade point averages and are more engaged in campus life. In addition to the growth of on-campus housing downtown, we are seeing new private market student housing announced and constructed near campus. The first such project opened in 2013, another opened this fall and there is now talk of two more projects being planned next to campus. All of this investment in housing for Georgia State students is another indication of our major influence in the revitalization and growth of downtown Atlanta, as well as confidence in the university’s trajectory. It is incredibly gratifying to see the energy tens of thousands of students are

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bringing to our Georgia State campuses across the metro area. They have an exciting, stimulating and challenging academic year ahead of them, and so do our faculty and staff. With the inclusion of Perimeter College for the first time this fall, we are a new university, with the enduring goal of establishing a new model for a university where students from all backgrounds achieve success. We have already begun to implement our successful student-support programs on the Perimeter campuses, including the awarding of Panther Retention Grants and the use of predictive analytics to identify students who are at risk. We want to provide the educational opportunity, the support and guidance that will get our students to graduation day, and now we have the imperative to do it for more students than ever before. Sincerely,

Mark P. Becker President

ILLUSTRATION BY ANDY FRIEDMAN

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Full print cover of GSU mag. THEY STILL PRINT ACTUAL TANGIBLE COPIES!

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VIA TWITTER New edition of @gsumagazine is pretty slick! Neat learning all the impressive things GSU alums are doing @ToddDresdow Todd Dresdow Nice write-up in @GeorgiaStateU Magazine on @HandHMacon - can't wait to come down for a visit. @RonDCNews Ron Daniel

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MORE ARTS, PLEASE

"It might take some investigating, but it should prove interesting to trace some of Georgia State’s visual arts graduates from the 1970s and '80s." Roland C. Wolff (M.F.A. ’76)

Fall 2016, Vol 7, Number 3 Publisher Don Hale Executive Editor Andrea Jones Editor William Inman Contributors Ashton Brasher (B.A. '15), Ray Glier, Brian Mullen Copy Editor Benjamin Hodges (B.A. '08) Creative Director José Reyes for Metaleap Creative MetaleapCreative.com Associate Creative Director Eric Capossela Designer Harold Velarde Contributing Illustrators Adam Cruft, Andy Friedman, Grafilu, Daniel Krall, Thomas Porostocky, Justin Tran Contributing Photographers Edward Linsmier, Josh Meister, Ben Rollins Send address changes to: Georgia State University Gifts and Records P.O. Box 3963 Atlanta Ga. 30302-3963 Fax: 404-413-3441 e-mail: update@GSU.edu Send letters to the editor and story ideas to: William Inman, editor, Georgia State University Magazine P.O. Box 3983 Atlanta Ga. 30302-3983 Fax: 404-413-1381 e-mail: winman@GSU.edu Georgia State University Magazine is published four times annually by Georgia State University. The magazine is dedicated to communicating and promoting the high level of academic achievement, research, faculty scholarship and teaching, and service at Georgia State University, as well as the outstanding accomplishments of its alumni and the intellectual, cultural, social and athletic endeavors of Georgia State University’s vibrant and diverse student body. © 2016 Georgia State University

M A G A Z I N E. G S U. E D U

IN THE CITY

CAMPUS HEALTHY GROWTH The School of Public Health adds undergraduate degree and earns accreditation. This fall, the School of Public Health will offer its first undergraduate program, a bachelor of science degree in public health with an emphasis on urban and global health issues. The degree was approved in May by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia. In addition, the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) Board of Councilors has accredited the school. The decision transitions the school from programlevel to school-wide accreditation, making Georgia State the first public university in metro Atlanta to earn CEPH accreditation. “With our strategic location in Atlanta, we are committed to becoming a world-class School of Public Health,” said Michael P. Eriksen, founding dean of the school. Georgia State’s master of public ealth program is one of the largest accredited programs in the Southeast. ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT Robinson College introduces Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute. The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute, a new academic unit in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business, brings together new and established entrepreneurship and innovation courses and experiences in the college and expands accessibility to these offerings to students across the university. “At the end of 2015, Inc. magazine reported that 27 million Americans were running new businesses, which is a record high and a trend we strongly believe will continue,” said Richard CONT’D ON P.9

NEW SCHOOL

INTRODUCING THE COLLEGE OF THE ARTS.

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FINE TUNING THE ARTS : The new academic unit, opening July 2017, will focus on education in arts and related media, promote creativity, and respond to the changing needs of artists on- and offcampus. The new college will be home to about 2,000 students. FOUNDING DEAN: Wade Weast, associate dean of music and fine arts and director of

Georgia State’s School of Music, has been named dean of the college. INDUSTRY BOOM : The college will bring together a group of faculty and students

with common research and creative interests and goals. It will respond to the rapid growth of Georgia State and Atlanta, while capitalizing on recent growth in the film and entertainment industries in Georgia.

ILLUSTRATION BY JUSTIN TRAN

BULLETPROOFING Jennifer Waindle (B.S. ’05) keeps firearms out of the reach of domestic abusers. BY ASHTON BRASHER (B.A. ’15)

ILLUSTRATION BY ARTIST HERE

PHOTOS BY BEN ROLLINS

M A G A Z I N E. G S U. E D U

BULLETPROOFING

hen Jennifer Waindle graduated from Georgia State with degrees in psychology and sociology, she landed a job as a probation officer in DeKalb County. Initially, she hadn’t considered this career path but found it was a “unique blend of social work and law enforcement,” she said, and thus “a perfect fit.” About a year later, Waindle was also able to provide support for victims when she moved into a special division to monitor domestic violence offenders. She became the lead officer of that unit, and she is now the supervisor for DeKalb County State Court Probation. A key part of this role is victim safety, as well as accountability. As Waindle transitioned into her role, she saw several cases of domestic homicide in the news and in her own work where the perpetrators used guns. A federal law prohibits convicted domestic violence offenders from owning firearms. Waindle figured that simply informing probationers of this law might help to curb repeat offenses and homicides. “I felt it was important not only that we inform probationers of the firearm ban, but that we notify the court that we informed them,” she said, “the same way the attorneys do when they are informed of their rights in court on a written document that they acknowledge by signature.” Two years ago, Waindle implemented the first formal probation firearms protocol in Georgia on a misdemeanor level for the purpose of enforcing that federal firearms ban. It’s been praised by the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council, Georgia Commission on Family Violence and other organizations as a recommended practice for other agen-

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cies. This summer, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal firearms ban for people convicted of domestic violence offenses. Now, when someone who has ever had a probation case in DeKalb County attempts to purchase a firearm through a dealer and submits the buyer’s information to the FBI, Waindle’s team is notified. This doesn’t prevent offenders from purchasing firearms through other channels, but Waindle believes this approach to public safety rests on the principles of accountability and consistency. Waindle said she’s in the business of “homicide prevention,” and her goals are simple: she hopes to see victims protected, probationers reformed and communities safeguarded.

• The Pokéconomy A new craze has swept the globe: Pokémon Go. Visit magazine.gsu.edu for

an in-depth breakdown of the phenomenon by Denish Shah, associate professor of marketing.

• Community Builder Visit magazine.gsu.edu for a story on Maria Azul (B.S.W. ’03), direc-

tor of programming for Welcoming Atlanta, a new initiative to create a more inclusive city.

$218 M

Amount the Burning Bright capital campaign has raised since its kickoff in October 2015. Welke, director of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Institute. “Consequently, we are excited to create an entity specifically charged to ensure all university graduates can be exposed to and develop entrepreneurial skills.” The institute has taken the lead in creating a new university living-learning community (to be called e-House) where likeminded entrepreneurial students can live in university housing with their own support space and planned activities. Robinson’s Herman J. Russell Sr. International Center for Entrepreneurship, established in 1999, will relocate from the Department of Managerial Sciences and become a center within the institute. LIFTOFF Major gift from Delta will support new success center. A $2 million gift from The Delta Air Lines Foundation will enable the Robinson College of Business to create the Delta Student Success Center, a space that will unite three units focused on ensuring students develop business communication skills, access experiential learning opportunities and connect with internships and job Students in Georgia opportunities. State's Honors ColThe center will lege. This fall, the house Robinson’s college welcomed Career Advance247 new students. ment Center, the with a record average Office of UnderSAT score of 1360. graduate Academic Assistance and the soon-to-be introduced Office of Experiential Learning, bringing together students, alumni, advisers, faculty and members of the business community in the college’s soon-to-be new home at 55 Park Place. “The forthcoming Office of Experiential Learning will allow us to turbocharge the immersive educational experiences we provide Robinson students through these signature programs by expanding our already extensive netCONT’D ON P.10

1,600

ILLUSTRATION BY DANIEL KRALL

THE EQUESTRIAN

ELISA WALLACE (B.A. ’05) IS A COMPETITIVE HORSEBACK RIDER AND TRAINER, AND WAS AN ALTERNATE TO COMPETE IN THE SUMMER OLYMPICS. SHE’S ALSO A MUSTANG ADVOCATE WHO WORKS TO SAVE AMERICA’S WILD HORSE POPULATION. Exactly what is “eventing” in the equestrian world?

You’re also a mustang advocate. What does that entail?

It’s essentially a triathlontype event where you compete with one horse through all three phases. The first phase, called Dressage, is very similar to ballet where you have a test that has specific movements. The second phase is crosscountry riding; you have the horse galloping at 25 miles per hour for distances of about four miles with about 25 to 30 jumps. The third phase is show jumping where you’re in an arena with jumps that test accuracy and fitness, trying to not knock down any of the rails at the jumps.

Right now there are around 50,000 horses that are in holding facilities, and there are roughly 34,000 in the wild. The Bureau of Land Management goes out and captures these horses and they put them in holding facilities until they’re adopted. Most people don’t know that these horses exist. My goal is bridge that gap by training these horses as well as by educating the public and increasing awareness.

You were an alternate to compete at the 2016 Olympics? Yes, ever since I was a kid,

I’ve always wanted to compete in the Olympics. Our sport is difficult. We’re dealing with another entity, a horse, that has its own mind and personality.

What attracted you to want to make a career working with horses as an equestrian? Well, I don’t think I had a choice. My dad was a trainer, and my mom rode horses while she was pregnant with me, so I think it’s kind of in my blood. It’s all I’ve ever thought about since I was a kid, and I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing. • Read more at magazine.gsu.edu

M A G A Z I N E. G S U. E D U

IN THE CITY work of business partnerships,” Richard Phillips, dean of Robinson College, said. Construction is expected to begin in the fall with anticipated move-in in 2017. STRONGER TIES Perimeter College nursing program joins the Georgia State School of Nursing. The Perimeter College Department of Nursing associate degree program has become an administrative unit of the Georgia State University School of Nursing in accordance with regulations of the Georgia Board of Nursing. The new name is the Georgia State University School of Nursing Associate Degree Program, Perimeter College. The change is an administrative, not a physical, change. New and continuing associate degree pathway students take courses at the suburban campus locations and pay Perimeter College tuition and fees. New associate degree students will be accepted into the pathway under the existing admissions policies. “Consolidating Georgia State’s nursing education moves us towards achieving the goal of a better-educated nursing workforce,” said Joan Cranford, assistant dean of nursing. “A more educated workforce leads to improved patient care and better healthcare outcomes. “The School of Nursing offers students a more seamless academic progression, allowing them to achieve higher levels of education and help create a more diverse workforce.”

DISCOVERY PERSONALIZED LEARNING Georgia State to take part in national adaptive courseware project. The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities has picked Georgia State as one of seven institutions to participate in a three-year project to improve undergradu-

ate education through adoption of adaptive courseware. Georgia State will use a major grant to implement and scale the use of adaptive courseware in high-enrollment courses to improve student success. “The grant will allow us to affect tens of thousands of students every year by integrating new technologies into their courses,” said Tim Renick, vice provost and vice president for enrollment management and student success at Georgia State. “With these changSeasons Dave es, students will be Cohen (B.A. ’94) has able to get personbeen the Panthers’ alized, immediate radio play-by-play feedback on their announcer, the work during every longest of any class session.” NCAA Division 1 Georgia State is broadcaster. a nationally recognized model in student success initiatives, achieving one of the most dramatic graduation rate increases in the nation among students of different racial and economic backgrounds.

THE EARLY SUN ‘Starspots,’ sunspots outside our solar system, captured by Georgia State’s CHARA Telescope Array. A team of astronomers using the world’s most powerful interferometer, Georgia State’s CHARA Array on Mt. Wilson in California, have identified “starspot” images that give a glimpse of how the sun likely behaved when the solar system was forming billions of years ago. Interferometry allows researchers to transform six telescopes into one superzoom lens. The international team built the first time lapse of Zeta Andromedae, a nearby star, across one of its 18-day rotations. Zeta Andromedae is about 181 light-years away in the northern constellation Andromeda. Sunspots and starspots are cooler, darker areas of a star’s outer shell that form when stronger regions of the magnetic field block the flow of heat and energy in patches. The pattern of spots astronomers saw on the star is different from how they’re typically arranged on the sun. The researchers say the CONT’D ON P.12

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GOOD NEIGHBOR Brian Egan (B.F.A. ’12) is bringing new life to the city's core. BY BENJAMIN HODGES (B.A. ’08)

PHOTO BY BEN ROLLINS

n a Tuesday afternoon just south of Five Points, the peace and quiet can feel downright eerie. Bookended by a pair of MARTA stations, this stretch of Broad Street runs from Trinity Avenue to Alabama Street. Parking lots, vacant storefronts and wide sidewalks play host to flocks of foraging pigeons who navigate around the down-and-out seeking shelter under awnings. Brian Egan strolls down the street and steps inside the Mammal Gallery, the arts and performance facility he co-founded in 2013. Here, Egan oversees programming and brings life back to the neglected neighborhood. In less than three years, he’s turned the venue into one of Atlanta’s premier springboards for young artists and booked some of the nation’s top independent bands. “At a basic level, I enjoy throwing a party,” Egan said, “which just means I like bringing people together.” Egan credits his Georgia State professors for pushing him to think about art conceptually and turn his ideas into practicable strategies. With campus just blocks away, Egan continues to work with the university, giving talks, hiring interns and providing gallery space for students. Egan is working on starting a residency program, upgrading the music hall and partnering with his neighbors for sustainable growth. “I want to see south downtown become more successful and vibrant without displacing the people who are already here,” he said. “I just want the vacant buildings to be full. I want more neighbors.”

M A G A Z I N E. G S U. E D U

IN THE CITY findings challenge theories of how stars’ magnetic fields influence their evolution. “Zeta Andromedae represents a critical first step in studying the magnetic storms on sun-like stars,” said Fabien Baron, assistant professor of astronomy. “The CHARA Array will soon create images of many other stars to document the diversity of their surfaces.” DIAGNOSTIC TOOL New screening using infrared technology could offer fast, simple test for colitis. A minimally invasive screening for ulcerative colitis, a debilitating gastrointestinal tract disorder, could be a rapid and costeffective method for detecting the disease. The discovery can potentially eliminate the need for biopsies and intrusive testing of the human body, according to Georgia State researchers. Using infrared technology, the technique involves testing serum, the clear liquid that can be separated from clotted blood, for the increased Freshmen in Georgia presence of State’s class of 2020. a marker for colitis, using a method of spectroscopy. This technology requires minimal sample preparation, making it a rapid diagnostic alternative. “We found that spectroscopy is an effective tool for detecting colitis in the serum of mice,” said Unil Perera, a Regents’ Professor of Physics and researcher in the Center for Nano-Optics. “This rapid, simple, cost-effective and minimally invasive technique could be further developed into a personalized diagnostic tool.” Inflammatory bowel diseases, which include ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, involve chronic inflammation of all or part of the digestive tract and can lead to life-threatening complications such as colorectal cancer. Assessing this inflammation remains a challenge, and clinical diagnosis is now achieved by colonoscopy, which uses an endoscope or flexible tube with a light and camera attached to examine the digestive tract. This technique is not ideal for an annual checkup or monitoring disease activity regularly because it’s expensive, invasive and requires sedation.

5,700

2,252

Members of the Student Alumni Association, the largest student organization on campus.

CREATIVITY KING MONUMENT Renowned sculptor Martin Dawe (B.F.A. ’80) will create statue of Martin Luther King Jr. on the Capitol grounds. Martin Dawe, whose public art pieces include the five Atlas bronze figures atop the World’s Greatest Athlete statue on Peachtree Street in Midtown Atlanta, has been chosen by Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal to create the life-size statue of Martin Luther King Jr. for the Georgia State Capitol building. Dawe operates Cherrylion Studios, a custom sculpture studio. It has produced hundreds of commissions, including many large-scale public art installations and several life-size portrait commissions. His work includes the lifesize bronze statue of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt at F. D. Roosevelt State Park in Pine Mountain, Ga. Deal announced plans to erect a statue on Capitol grounds during last year’s Martin Luther King Jr. memorial ceremony, and the statue is scheduled to be unveiled early next year. ACTIVE READING Professor’s new book recognized for its social and political impact. Carrie P. Freeman, associate professor of communication, is one of three National Indie Excellence 2016 Book Awards finalists in the “social/political change” category for her book, “Framing Farming: Communication Strategies for Animal Rights.” The National Indie Excellence Awards celebrate excellence in independent, self-published and small-press book publishing. New buildings ac“It’s nice to have quired in downtown [the book] objecAtlanta by Georgia tively acknowlState since the 1996 edged by those in Olympic Games.

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the publishing industry, outside of critical animal studies scholars and activists,” Freeman said. An animal rights activist for two decades, Freeman was always inspired by the brochures, posters, videos, images and messages that resonated most with the people with whom she knew. That inspiration led her to explore the types of messages that would influence people to change their view of animals, convincing the public to see animals as worthy of being free of human control.

ATHLETICS COURTLAND Georgia State opens new athletics practice facility. Georgia State recently opened a new practice facility that will primarily house men’s and women’s basketball, as well as volleyball. Along with a state-of-the-art floor, it includes six basketball goals and a volleyball practice set-up. After more than a decade of being sparsely used, the facility will be active every day of the year. Student-athletes will have full access to it, and the building can be used for camps and much more. It also houses the new beach volleyball locker room. “This is a huge step to help all of our programs,” said Director of Athletics Charlie Cobb. “Our goal is to give all of our teams the first-class resources they need to succeed on and off the court.” Combined gifts from Brad (B.B.A. ’81) and Patty Ferrer (M.Ed. ’75) and Cathy Henson (J.D. ’89) and her husband, Chris Carpenter, helped fund the renovation of the facility next to the Sports Arena. The court in the renovated facility is named the Cathy Henson-Patty Ferrer Court.

• Family Ties Jesse Minter grew up with his dad, Rick, coaching college football. Now they’re

SUPER ADHESIVE

What sets the protein, ProAgio, apart from other protein drugs is how it binds to the integrin.

coaching together for the Panthers. Visit magazine. gsu.edu for a story on the father/son duo.

TITLE TILT Sun Belt Conference will play inaugural football championship game in 2018. The Sun Belt Conference will hold its first football championship game in 2018. The conference has 11 football-playing members, but Idaho and New Mexico State will leave the conference in 2018. Coastal Carolina will join the league in 2018 to give it 10 football members. The conference has the option to create divisions and play the championship game between division winners, or the top two teams in the conference standings could Degree-granting colface off following leges, schools and the regular season. institutes at Georgia “Having a Sun State. Belt championship will create a memorable experience for our student-athletes to compete in a championship game,” said Head Football Coach Trent Miles. “It also provides an opportunity for the conference to showcase its top two teams on a national stage while bringing the Sun Belt in line with all the other conferences.”

KILLER CODE

The new protein activates an enzyme that assists in programmed cell death.

SELECTIVELY SAFE

The protein’s anticancer effects show no adverse effects on the surrounding tissue.

ON TARGET

GEORGIA STATE RESEARCHERS DESIGN A NEW CLASS OF PROTEIN THAT COULD TREAT CANCER AND OTHER DISEASES. A protein designed by researchers at Georgia State can effectively target a cell surface receptor linked to a number of diseases, showing potential as a therapeutic treatment for cancer and other illnesses. ProAgio, created from a human protein, targets a particular Integrin, or a cell surface receptor, that plays a critical role in cells ability to attach to other cells. This particular integrin has been a focus for drug development because an abnormal expression of one of its sub-units is linked to the development and progression of a number of diseases. Integrins are

ILLUSTRATION BY THOMAS POROSTOCKY

composed of different combinations of sub-units, and different types of cells have different pairs of sub-units. “This integrin pair is not expressed in high levels in normal tissue,” said Zhi-Ren Liu, biology professor and lead author of the study. “In most cases, it’s associated with a number of different pathological conditions. Therefore, it constitutes a very good target for multiple disease treatment.” Previous approaches to targeting this integrin have focused on ligand binding, or attaching a molecule to the active site, which hasn’t been effective. There is a

need to develop agents that target this integrin at sites other than the ligandbinding site, Liu said. “We took a unique angle,” Lui said. “We designed a protein that binds to a different site. Once the protein binds to the site, it directly triggers cell death. When we’re able to kill pathological cells, then we’re able to kill the disease.” In addition, tests showed ProAgio strongly inhibits tumor growth. Tissue analyses indicated the protein effectively prevents the growth of tumor blood vessels, while existing blood vessels were not affected..

ALUMNI FIRST RESPONDER Brian Panasuk (M.P.H. ’10) is on the frontline of health emergencies for the CDC. It was September 2014, during the height of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, when Brian Panasuk first laid eyes on Liberia. But it’s the smell he’ll never forget. “Diesel,” he said. “There were generators everywhere.” Panasuk had been working for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Joint Information Center in Atlanta for only two years when he was dropped into the middle of a public health crisis in a foreign land. His job as a health communications specialist CONT’D ON P.15

M A G A Z I N E. G S U. E D U

A SCORE OF FIVE POINTS Georgia State’s literary magazine is turning 20, and Megan Sexton (M.F.A. ’93, Ph.D. ’98) keeps it at the top of its game. BY WILLIAM INMAN

PHOTO BY BEN ROLLINS

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egan Sexton was there when the very first issue of Five Points, A Journal of Literature and Art, Georgia State’s long-running literary magazine, was put to bed. That first publication is celebrating its 20th birthday this fall. In the two decades since the first issue appeared, Sexton has been a part of each journal — from a doctoral student on the start-up team to co-editor (with David Bottoms, Georgia’s poet laureate and professor of English). These days, the magazine is widely regarded as one of the best literary magazines in the country. It’s been namedropped by Stephen King in his introduction to “The Best American Short Stories 2007” as well as in the New York Times Book Review ("which I read religiously, so that was a big treat," Sexton said), and has appeared in dozens of top 10 lists and “best of” anthologies. “It indicates that people like what you do,” Sexton said. Work from literary giants such as Pulitzer Prize winners Philip Levine and Louis Simpson and former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins have appeared in its pages, but Sexton said one of the magazine’s main missions is to promote emerging writers. And that means scrutinizing the thousands of manuscripts that come across her desk. “We’re always reading,” she said. Over the years, Five Points has been a literature lab for graduate students in the Master of Fine Arts program and creative writing students. Sexton estimated she and her staff of students and faculty colleagues read about 5,000 poems, essays and short stories last fall. Sexton is also an award-winning poet. "Swift Hour," a collection of her poems, received the Adrienne Bond Award for Poetry. She also teaches classes in the Creative Writing Department. To celebrate 20 years of the magazine, Sexton is curating an exhibition this fall in the Georgia State Library special collection. That exercise has found her thumbing through each and every one of the 46 issues she’s been involved in. “Georgia State has been a great place to grow as a writer, an editor and student of literature,” she said.

• Brag With Your Tag Show your Georgia State spirit and help support scholarships by

was to make sure the teams of emergency responders that deployed with him were able to work together and share information. Lives were at stake. Amid the fumes, long hours, tight working quarters and constant demands, Panasuk said he realized he loved the job. He volunteered to go back to Liberia twice more last year with the CDC, working alongside USAID’s disaster response team to procure supplies to build Ebola treatment units and instruct health care workers how to keep the deadly disease from spreading. During spring 2016, Panasuk deployed to Puerto Rico to be part of the CDC’s response to the Zika virus outbreak. He was among the first group of CDC emergency responders to arrive on the Caribbean island. “Our job was to lay the groundwork for the next teams to come in,” he said. Panasuk and his team set up their workspace in the Puerto Rico Department of Health, working with local public health officials. When Panasuk isn’t responding to health emergencies, his focus Georgia State's rank is on preparing for among the nation's the next one. most diverse institu“We work with tions by U.S. News other CDC centers and World Report. so that when an emergency does come — whether it’s an infectious disease outbreak or a natural disaster — they know whom they’ll be working with and we can instantly build a roster of who’s responding,” he said. “I think I thrive on emergency response work. It’s like Clark Kent going into the booth and coming out as Superman.”

choosing the Georgia State license plate when you purchase or renew your tag.

• Share Your Success Class Notes are shareable through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Post your good news and share with your network by visiting magazine.gsu. edu/add-class-notes.

BIG LEAGUER Tiffany Blackmon (B.A. ’07) is a reporter for the NFL Network. She will officially go down in the record book as the first Georgia State female student-athlete to sign an NFL contract. Tiffany Blackmon hasn’t signed with an NFL team, but rather with NFL Network, the league’s owned and operated television network. She an Atlanta correspondent for the network, and a contributor to shows such as “NFL Total Access”, “NFL GameDay Morning” and more.

ILLUSTRATION BY ADAM CRUFT

BRIAN PANASUK (M.P.H. ’10)

“I think I thrive on emergency response work. It’s like Clark Kent going into the booth and coming out as Superman.” “There are so few openings at this level, and my appreciation and excitement is through the roof,” she said. Her first assignment was a one-onone interview with Atlanta Falcons Head Coach Dan Quinn. Blackmon was a journalism major at Georgia State and interned with the athletic communications office while lettering four years with the Panther soccer team. She was a production assistant with the Weather Channel in Atlanta and moved her way through local television stations in Lake Charles, La.; Waco, Texas; and

Oklahoma City. She caught on with the Comcast Sports Network in Houston before joining the NFL Network. Football is in her blood. Her father was an NFL linebacker for seven years and then an NFL assistant coach for 19 more years. “When I realized I was going to be around the game that he loved for so many years, it was kind of cool and inspiring,” she said. Got a promotion? A new addition to the family? Go ahead, brag a little. Visit magazine.gsu.edu for news from your classmates and fellow Georgia State alumni.

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THE NEW AGE OF

DISCO

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V E RY Georgia State is now one of the fastest growing research universities i n t h e c o u n t r y. BY WI L L I A M I NM AN AND B RI AN M U L L E N

PHOTOGRAPHS BY JOSH MEISTER ILLUSTRATIONS BY GRAFILU

Georgia State has garnered national recognition for improving student success regardless of background and exponentially raising graduation rates. Now it is developing a national reputation as one of the country’s fastest growing research universities. ¶ Twenty-one years ago, Georgia State was named a research university by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, setting the university on a trajectory to become a premier urban public research university. ¶ Carl Patton, who served as Georgia State’s president from 1992-2008, has said the designation was the spark that fueled the university’s remarkable physical growth as well as its research portfolio. ¶ “There’s a very symbiotic relationship between research and physical space,” Patton told the Georgia State University Magazine in 2013. “We joke that presidents have ‘edifice complexes.’ But it’s not really a joke. If we don’t have the right buildings, the right space, we can’t recruit the right people.” OVER THE LAST SEVERAL YEARS,

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Sinai in New York moved to Atlanta to keep the research moving. (“The most important thing was to bring the people here,” he says.) Basler’s lab also added new equipment, and now, he says, they are better equipped to continue their pioneering antiviral research. “We’ve got some new toys to play with,” he says. Basler is a newly named Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar in Microbial Pathogenesis and is now the eighth eminent scholar at the university. His hire is part of the Second Century Initiative, a five-year program to add at least 100 new faculty and researchers to enhance the university’s research. In his new role as director, Basler will hire additional faculty to expand the center’s work. In recent years, Georgia State has become a destination for distinguished — and well-funded — researchers like Basler. In 1995, Georgia State was classified as a research university, and today it ranks among the nation’s top 108 public and private universities in the Carnegie Foundation’s elite category of top research universities. This category represents the highest level of research activity for doctorate-granting universities in the United States. In addition, the university hosts one of the country’s only biosafety 4 (BSL-4) labs, a big reason Basler is here. The lab is a “supermax” facility with the highest level of biosafety

Numbers vary, but estimates of the global death toll associated with the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 reach upwards of 50 million. Vaccines developed since then have dramatically reduced the casualties and have nearly eradicated major diseases such as smallpox, yellow fever, whooping cough and polio. Still, influenza kills thousands of people annually, and it seems each year brings a new killer virus for which public health officials have no answer. In the last 10 years, viral conflagrations such as H1N1, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the most terrifying of all, Ebola, have filled headlines, destroyed lives and struck terror. Zika, the scary virus du jour, has no approved drugs or vaccines and has now reached the continental United States. Chris Basler is one of the world’s foremost virologists and a leading expert in emerging viruses. His lab has discovered a protein in Ebola virus cells that, when shut down, can stop it from replicating and infecting its host. He hopes his research can lead to a broad-spectrum drug that can someday treat Ebola and other highly pathogenic viruses. “We need to be able to respond to these viruses as they appear,” Basler says. Basler is founding director of the new Center for Microbial Pathogenesis in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State. He’s been at the university for about two months now. His eighth floor office in the Petit Science Center is still a work in progress. But his lab is working at a steady thrum. Basler’s lab studies filoviruses, which include the Ebola and Marburg viruses and other deadly emerging pathogens and bioterrorism agents. Five researchers from his former lab at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount

GEORGIA STATE’S RESEARCH FUNDING HAS INCREASED 106 PERCENT IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS, MAKING IT ONE OF THE NATION’S FASTEST GROWING RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS.

Opposite: Chris Basler, founding director of the new Center for Microbial Pathogenesis in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences. Right: Alicia Feagins, a postdoctoral researcher in Basler’s lab, sets up an experiment.

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Jenny Yang, associate director of the Center for Diagnostics and Therapeutics at Georgia State.

precautions, which gives Basler’s team the safety and security to expand their capabilities as they continue to develop potential treatments for Ebola and other deadly viruses. “Having direct access to the virus we’re studying makes us better, and we’ll make progress more quickly,” Basler says. In order to become the major research university it is today, Georgia State senior leadership sought to bring in researchers like Basler to address the most challenging issues of our time. To achieve this goal, no surprise, it takes money — funding in university research nomenclature. Georgia State has made it a top priority to encourage its researchers to pursue more funding for scientific research endeavors, says President Mark Becker. And it has paid off. In the past five years, the university has significantly increased its research award funding, reaching record levels this fiscal year, with $120.2 million in awards, the highest in university history.

OUR COMMITMENT TO COMPETE FOR FUNDING HAS HELPED SECURE OUTSIDE SUPPORT FOR RESEARCH, WHICH CREATES JOBS AND SUPPORTS INNOVATION IN ATLANTA AND THE STATE OF GEORGIA.

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“Our research growth is tied to the recruitment of faculty who are continuing to build our profile,” Becker says. In the past two years, Georgia State’s research funding has grown by nearly $40 million, says James Weyhenmeyer, vice president for research and economic development. Funding from federal agencies, which accounts for more than 78 percent of the total research volume at Georgia State, grew by 30 percent. This included increases of 235 percent from the U.S. Department of Education, 18 percent from the National Science Foundation and 11 percent from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Grants and contracts from private industry grew by nine percent. “In the last five years, our commitment to compete for funding has helped secure outside support for research, which creates jobs and supports innovation in Atlanta and the state of Georgia,” Weyhenmeyer says. The Second Century Initiative, or 2CI — the university initiative that brought in Basler and dozens of other researchers — was designed to build upon Georgia State’s 2010 strategic plan, with an emphasis on high-level research and interdisciplinary collaboration. At the heart of the initiative is developing a culture on campus that recognizes the importance and impact of funded research. “The faculty are key to achieving and sustaining the university’s level of recognition in the research community,” Weyhenmeyer says. Environment has a critical role in the success of the faculty, particularly in the natural and physical sciences where facilities and equipment are key factors in securing grant proposals. In addition to the Center for Microbial Pathogenesis, Georgia State recently started two university-level research centers — the Mark Chaffin Center for Healthy Development and the Center for Molecular and Translational Medicine — dedicated to health and medicine. Researchers in the centers have already secured more than $55 million in external research funding. Basler’s lab has brought in nearly $5 million for two collaborative NIHfunded projects to investigate viruses as emerging pathogens and bioterrorism agents and to develop drugs that undermine their viral functions.

Georgia State’s BSL-4 lab is one of only four in the nation on a university campus. The lab is a global resource funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Research Resources. Georgia State built the lab in 1998 when Julia Hilliard, professor of biology and a Georgia Research Eminent Scholar, established the Viral Immunology Center to study the Herpes B virus and other zoonotic viruses passed from animals to humans, such as rabies, SARS and Ebola. The addition of the Petit Science Center was a pivotal project for Georgia State and has been the anchor in the university’s Research Science Center. This fall, the university opened Science Park II, a four-floor laboratory building with research labs adjacent to the Petit Science Center. While Georgia State offers a first-rate research environment with a strong institutional commitment to resources, it’s the scientists who ultimately create an atmosphere for research accomplishment. “The new facilities are nice,” says Basler, “but you have to have good colleagues as well.”

or Basler, the collegial environment at Georgia State was a selling point. He’s friends with Richard Plemper, a professor in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences — where Basler’s Center for Microbial Pathogenesis is housed — and several other researchers at Georgia State as well as others at Emory University, the University of Georgia and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sudip Khadka, a postdoctoral researcher, tests compounds for antiviral effects.

“Richard made me aware of what was going on here,” Basler says. Plemper is a renowned scientist in his own right. He was the lead researcher for an international team that discovered an antiviral drug that may protect people infected with measles from getting sick and prevent them from spreading the virus. Plemper says the drug could be used to treat contacts of a person infected with the measles virus who have not developed symptoms but are at risk of having caught the disease. It’s Plemper’s experience in antiviral drug discovery that has Basler hopeful of collaborating with him and other Georgia State researchers to develop virus-fighting drugs and vaccines. “[Plemper] and the other scientists at the university have a very complementary expertise,” Basler says. “Having that background and expertise is very useful.” In recent years, collaborating researchers at Georgia State have made significant scientific breakthroughs and have earned substantial grants and funding from major federal funding sources. Supported by funding from the NIH, Jenny Yang, associate director of the Center for Diagnostics and Therapeutics at Georgia State, led a research team that discovered the first robust and noninvasive detection of early stage liver cancer and liver metastases, in addition to other liver diseases, such as cirrhosis and liver fibrosis. Liver cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, accounting for more than 600,000 deaths annually, according to the American Cancer Society. Yang, professor of chemistry and a Distinguished University Professor, says liver cancers associated with high mortality rates and poor treatment responses are often diagnosed in the late stages because there is no reliable way to detect primary liver cancer and metastasis smaller than one centimeter. Her interdisciplinary research team developed a protein agent that is 40 times more sensitive than today’s commonly used and clinically approved agents used to detect liver tumors. The agent also improves MRI detection and helps obtain high-resolution images of the liver. M A G A Z I N E. G S U. E D U

Jian Dong Li, founding director of the Institute for Biomedical Science.

Elliot Albers, Regents’ Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience.

THE TRAJECTORY OF GEORGIA STATE BECOMING A MAJOR RESEARCH ENTERPRISE WAS CLEAR BECAUSE OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL NATURE OF THE FACULTY AND ADMINISTRATORS.

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“[The agents] provide double the accuracy and confidence of locating cancerous tumors,” Yang says. Yang built upon that research to develop another imaging agent that traces changes in cancers and treatment without using radiation. Jian Dong Li, founding director of the Institute for Biomedical Sciences, was one of the first 2CI hires in 2011. Li is a Georgia Research Alliance Eminent Scholar and professor of biomedical sciences. He is also director of the Center for Inflammation, Immunity and Infection and specializes in inflammation, immunity research and respiratory infections. Since his arrival, he has directed several significant health-related projects that have received major funding. Of particular note is his lab’s work on drug repositioning. Researchers have discovered that Vinpocetine, a commonly used drug derived from the periwinkle plant and used for to treat neurological disorders such as stroke, acts as a potent anti-inflammatory agent. Elliot Albers, Regents’ Professor of Neuroscience and Director of the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, is celebrating three decades at Georgia State. When he arrived on campus, you could count the neuroscience and biomedical researchers at the university on one hand, he says. “The biomedical research program was housed in a converted parking garage covered in stainless pipes that looked like the Pompidou museum,” Albers says, referring to Kell Hall, which housed the lion’s share of the university’s lab spaces until the construction of the Natural Science Center in 1992 and the Petit Science Center in 2010. The Center for Behavioral Neuroscience opened in 1999 and has received more than $53 million in funding from the National Science Foundation and the Georgia Research Alliance. More than 100 neuroscientists work with the center — a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center — and it has expanded to include researchers from seven institutions in Atlanta. “Although the scale of the research was small when I arrived, the trajectory of Georgia State becoming a major research enterprise was clear because of the entrepreneurial nature of the faculty and administrators,” Albers says.

hat entrepreneurial nature transcends the hard sciences. Georgia State has experienced a spate of recent successes in major grant funding from elementary education to its own innovative programs aimed at helping college students succeed. Last fall, the U.S. Department of Education awarded Georgia State and its partner, the University Innovation Alliance, $8.9 million as part of the department’s First in the World Program to drive innovation in higher education. Georgia State is leading the project, which will will track the impact of proactive, analytics-based advising on 10,000 low-income and firstgeneration students at the 11 institutions of the alliance. “Over the next four years, our institutions will produce groundbreaking evidence illustrating the impact of predictive analytics on student success that will have national significance,” said Tim Renick, vice provost and vice president for enrollment management and student success, and the project lead. “We are delighted to lead this project on behalf of 11 large public universities enrolling more than 400,000 students collectively.” The university is sharing its nationally recognized expertise in data-driven advising, known as the GPS Advising System, with other major universities. With the Georgia State’s early warning tracking system, struggling students get the timely interventions they need to get back on track for success in their college courses and programs of study. Back on campus, Georgia State will soon open a financial education and counseling center with a $2 million grant

Research Assistant Professor Priya Luthra investigates antiviral compounds.

from the SunTrust Foundation. This center uses data to identify students who are financially at risk and helps them get back on track with education and counseling. As part of the grant, Georgia State will develop a playbook to share with other institutions how to use predictive analytics to solve financial and academic issues. In the College of Education and Human Development, researchers Amy Lederberg and Susan Easterbrooks are leading a $10 million research project to dramatically improve reading in children who are deaf and hard of hearing. The Center for Literacy and Deafness has research teams from around the country who are analyzing which types of interventions work best for early learners and helping to drive education practices. In addition, Daphne Greenberg, associate professor of educational psychology and special education, established the Center for the Study of Adult Literacy with a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The center studies the underlying issues of adults who struggle to read and is developing and evaluating a curriculum to address adult learners’ needs. Paul Alberto, dean of the College of Education and Human Development says the two new centers have generated momentum and well deserved attention for the college to seek out grants for scholarship and research activities. In fact, a big chunk of that recordbreaking $120.2 million in external funding — almost 20 percent — was awarded to researchers in the college. “What’s very encouraging to me is that we have several junior faculty members who are now first-time awardees,” Alberto says. “It bodes well for the future.” It’s this kind of transformative research that excites Becker. Whether it is finding breakthroughs in Ebola prevention or better pathways for student learning, Becker says the real impact is more than just a dollar figure. “Increasing our research portfolio is an important step for the university,” he says. “But to me, it indicates something larger. Our researchers are continuing to address the most pressing and complex problems and issues of our time and make significant breakthroughs that hold great promise for improving people’s lives.” M A G A Z I N E. G S U. E D U

Georgia Stateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s footprint in the heart of the city is growing and adding vitality to downtown Atlanta.

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Is Georgia State downtown’s savior? posed by editors at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution to President Mark Becker two years ago when it was first announced Georgia State was the lead suitor for the 77 acres of Turner Field and its surrounding parking lots. The question is a rhetorical one. In less than two decades, the university has added more than a million square feet of development, built two state-of-art research buildings, added more than 5,000 student residences and has adaptively reused downtown buildings left behind by banks, law firms and other businesses that have relocated to the suburbs. These buildings are the most recent additions to Georgia State’s physical space: a new campus gateway, a tower dedicated to science, a 1,100-bed student housing facility and a three-building academic corridor mixing old and new construction. The university is undoubtedly in a dynamic period of improvement and expansion, and as it embarks on largest real estate deal in university history with the Turner Field parcel (which is a whole other story…) it can be said without hesitation that Georgia State is the lifeblood in the heart of Atlanta.

THAT WAS THE QUESTION

PIEDMONT CENTRAL In August, students began moving into Georgia State’s newest housing and dining hall complex. Named Piedmont Central, the new building at the corner of Piedmont and John Wesley Dobbs avenues houses about 1,100 students and is the second largest student housing facility on campus. Georgia State now provides living space for more than 20 percent of its students.

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THE WOODRUFF CORRIDOR In 2011, Georgia State purchased the 28-story SunTrust tower and its plaza, renaming it 25 Park Place (1). It became the linchpin in the universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ambitious Woodruff Park District Plan â&#x20AC;&#x201D; an academic corridor Georgia State has created on Park Place across from Woodruff Park. The university owns the 55 Park Place building (2), which will soon be home to the Robinson College of Business and the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. Georgia State opened its newly constructed College of Law building (3) this past spring.

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3 2

C A M P U S G AT E WAY PHASE II Adjacent to the Petit Science Center at the corner of Decatur Street and Piedmont Avenue, the second tower of the Science Center was constructed to accommodate the rapid growth of research at the university. Opened this past summer, the $25 million building provides five additional floors to house Georgia State’s biomedical research teams and projects.

PIEDMONT CENTRAL, SCIENCE PARK AND CENTENNIAL HALL: PHOTOS BY WILLIAM DAVIS; WOODRUFF ACADEMIC CORRIDOR: PHOTO BY MEG BUSCEMA; PHOTO DIRECTION BY BASIL ISKANDRIAN

The four-story building at 100 Auburn Ave. was once home to the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, one of the most successful African-American-owned insurance companies. Opened in 2013 as Georgia State’s Centennial Hall, it houses the offices of the president, other Georgia State departments and the Welcome Center.

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The Road of Parris Parris Lee’s (B.A. ’13) journey began on the streets of East Harlem. Hard work brought him to Georgia State where he scored the school’s first touchdown. Today, he’s following his football dreams in the one of the most unlikely places — Serbia. By Ray Glier. Photographs by Edward Linsmier.

Parris Lee is irreplaceable in the Georgia State football record book. He scored the first touchdown — ever — for the Panthers on Sept. 2, 2010. Watch it on YouTube. That’s Lee stretched out there on the Georgia Dome turf, straining, yearning, willing himself to the goal line and reaching out with the tip of the football to cross the white stripe. ¶ It’s Lee’s record forever. He had to survive a traffic jam of linemen on the play (36 power), and he disappeared for a moment, which happens in the scrum when you’re 5-foot-9. But Lee reappeared, planted a foot, jumped, fell and seemed to crawl on the back of a teammate the last few inches. ¶ There was a lot of determination in that run. Determination is something Lee holds high and tight and treats as sacred, like a football. He scaled a wall of uncertainty surrounding his education with that same determination. ¶ It was the worst thing, he says, on the streets of East Harlem in 2001, when he was 11 years old, to be considered a “geek.” His only thought about that thing called homework was that he wasn’t doing any stinking homework. The tyranny of poverty added some height to that wall, but determination vaulted him over what dooms so many kids. ¶ Today, he’s a 26-year-old college graduate. He has a job playing professional football in Europe. Lee survived life’s flip of the coin with this inventory: a constant push from his mom, a teacher who cared and the encouragement of his college coach, Bill Curry. ¶ “My mom always reminded me [in college] of how far I’d come, and how proud I had made her,” Lee says. “She gave me a real perspective about how much I could change this family if I didn’t give up. I gave my family hope. I gave the kids on my block hope. I had to finish school just to show her how much I love her.”

In East Harlem late one afternoon in 2001, Parris and his friend, Jerry, walked up 106th Street from the park. Parris lived in the Wilson “projects” next to the Harlem River. Jerry lived in the Franklin “projects,” just around the corner on 2nd Avenue. “Hey bro, I gotta go see my mom real fast,” Jerry said, and he ran off. Parris was 11 and Jerry was 13. In the next 10 minutes, before he got to see his mom, Jerry was beaten by some street rivals. He died from his injuries the next day. “Bad people get a hold of kids at a young age,” Lee says. “It was senseless.” It was the random violence, the meanness, that had him thinking he was doomed at 11 years old. “People from where I was from don’t always graduate from high school,” he says. “I don’t have many friends from that time who are not in jail or dead.” Lee’s story had all the subtitles for a failed life: no education, desperate, deadend kid. And then his scenery changed, and so did his future. His mother, Michelle, and his stepfather, Darryl, moved to Kinston, N.C., when Lee was in the eighth grade. While his friends in New York met wardens, he met a teacher with a warden’s strictness, Ms. Faulkner, who told him, “Parris, you can do this.” “It was the first time I ever did homework,” he says. “Ms. Faulkner said I couldn’t play sports until I had a 70 aver-

Top left: Lee dives in for the first-ever Georgia State touchdown. Top right: Lee with his Serbian team, the Sremska Mitrovica Legionaries. Above: Lee coaching at his alma mater, Fletcher High, in Jacksonville, Fla.

age. My average when I got there was 49.” Lee started doing his homework, and they let him on the football team, the varsity, when he was just a ninth grader. He scored 15 touchdowns and was lifting 225 pounds as a freshman. By the time he was a junior in high school in Jacksonville, Fla., Lee was a bona fide Division 1 recruit. The major programs stiff-armed him because of his height, but the mid-majors — Central Florida, Central Michigan, Houston, Bethune-Cookman and Georgia State —

flocked to Fletcher High to see Lee. “He was elusive, and he was strong. He had ability,” says Curry, whose name is also irreplaceable in the Georgia State record books as the university’s first head football coach. Lee, who was part of Curry’s first signing class, did not have a truckload of memorable moments for the Panthers. He was a role player, an all-purpose running back for three seasons under Curry, rushing 71 times for 251 yards and four touchdowns. He returned 34 kicks for an average of 19.2 yards. Lee’s spirit on the practice field delighted Curry. He would be dejected about playing time and Curry would yank Lee aside and say to him, “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, I’m Parris Lee, and you’re not.” Lee would smile and furiously work

in practice to get more snaps. Curry, who has been the head coach at Georgia State, Kentucky and Alabama, said he gets a call or email every day from one of his former players. He still gets a thrill from watching one of his former players carry the football. “I watched one of his games from Serbia over the Internet, and the first time he touched the ball, he ran 45 yards through everybody,” Curry says. “I just loved watching his enthusiasm.” Curry remembers his high school counselor in College Park, Ga., telling him he had no business going to Georgia Tech in 1961. He wasn’t a good enough student. Lee’s high school counselor told him he had no business going to Georgia State in 2009. He wasn’t a good enough student. “When he graduated several years ago, I told him, ‘Don’t strut, and don’t be mean, but you need to go in there to that counselor and show her that diploma,’” Curry said.

You can hear the admiration in Curry’s voice. “He came from the toughest circumstances,” Curry says. “To say he has emerged from the darkness is an understatement.” Lee took his good fortune home to Jacksonville this summer to train high school players, including his little brother, at his former school, Fletcher High. He will be the wide receivers coach this fall and then decide his next step in Europe. That first touchdown for Georgia State was a crude operation. At first, there was no consensus it was a history-making touchdown. The players looked around, there was a pause in the crowd, and then the line judge came running in from the side with arms raised signaling touchdown. “The quarterback (Drew Little) grabbed me and yelled ‘You scored!’ I yelled back ‘I did?’”

Parris enjoys a stroll in the sand with his mother and siblings in Jacksonville Beach, Fla. From left: Lace Lee, Parris, Michelle Davis and Kobe Davis.

That touchdown didn’t catapult Lee to stardom, or to the NFL. But it did help get him to Serbia. Donald Russell, a former college teammate, told Lee of a website and how he could create a video for European football teams to consider him for a roster spot. Lee created a profile with game film and put it on the site in August 2015. He wasn’t hopeful. But when he checked the site a month later, he was amazed. Teams had tried to contact him and left messages. One team, the Sremska Mitrovica Legionaries in the first division of the Serbian Football League, were still pursuing him. Lee and the team talked for two months. The team said it liked his film, and wanted to know

if he would be their ambassador and teach the game to Serbian young men. “Of course,” Lee says. “I didn’t play much my senior season at Georgia State, so my legs were fresh, and I wasn’t beat up. I can still go.” They struck a deal. Lee flew to Belgrade in February. The team paid for his travel and paid him a salary. Lee stayed in a flat in a two-story house just outside the city center in Sremska Mitrovica. “Nana,” the landlady took care of Lee and the other American player, Sean Willix, a quarterback from Houston Baptist University. Two big meals a day and just as much in smiles. The flat was flat-out un-Southern. The walls were a bright green and decorated in unicorns. There was a lot of red splashed in, too. There were high ceilings, which slanted abruptly so you had to watch your head leaning over the sink to brush your teeth. The electric stove had just three burners. He had a balcony, and you would think, after talking to him, it was the penthouse overlooking Central Park. Lee ran for 412 yards and had 352 yards receiving in six games. He was a return guy at Georgia State, but Serbian opponents took one look at his elusiveness in the open field and refused to kick the ball to him when he lined up deep. The Legionaries finished 2-8 and in last place with Lee also playing defensive back. Lee did as promised and shared himself. The crowds were what you would find at a

small, local high school in the South, about 500 people, and Lee would stay and fill every autograph request. “They mostly wanted pictures with me,” Lee says. “I kissed babies, too.” The team, Lee says, want him to come back next season. The people in Serbia have tempered Lee. He watches them crawl under cars as mechanics, round up chickens and pigs as farmers, and he has seen them shovel snow so deep you couldn’t get out of your own front door. His teammates have 9-to-5 jobs working in the markets, in the fields and in offices. “The work I did at Georgia State allowed me to take my guard down and not make people do things my way,” Lee says. “I was more open in Serbia. I was thinking about things I had never thought about.” In the five months in the Belgrade area, Lee could translate, not a foreign language, but a foreign culture. He was in constant wonder, especially with the fruit trees growing in the spring right in front of him and locals urging him to pick a plum. Lee has soaked up Serbian humility and culture in Sremska Mitrovica, which is northwest of Belgrade. His favorite food is the spiced meat patty pljeskavica, which is the Serbian hamburger of pork, or beef stuffed with kackaval cheese. He has toured Roman ruins and majestic cathedrals. He’s talked with locals about their jobs and dreams. The women, Lee said, are “drop-dead gorgeous.”

My mom always reminded me of how far I’d come, and how proud I had made her. I gave my family hope.... I had to finish school just to show her how much I love her.

“The economy is not great here, but these people find a way to smile,” Lee says. “They work every day, they make things happen here. They are cab drivers and own shops and work for themselves. You have to admire them.”

On a street in Belgrade near midnight last March, Lee got hassled by a local. The man spoke enough English for Lee to understand that after 17 years he was still upset with U.S. President Bill Clinton and NATO. Bombs were dropped and missiles were fired there in March 1999 during the Kosovo War. That horrific piece of geopolitics happened when Lee was nine years old. He was being held responsible for something he had nothing to do with, but Lee did not ball his hand into his fist and get ready for a fight with this man or his four friends. Instead, Lee stuck out his hand and said he was sorry for the mayhem on the man’s hometown. The man continued to scream. Lee remained calm. Lee is a fast runner, but he didn’t look for an easy exit or decide there would be some unruliness, as if he was busting through tacklers. He chilled. The man chilled. One of the five men shook Lee’s hand, and then the group, with their pal’s vents cleared, was on its way. The Serbians find him a curiosity at times, asking if they can touch his dreadlocks. “They are like ‘wow,’” he says, as they marvel over his hair. In return, Lee is wowed by Serbia. “I had never been to the top of a mountain,” Lee says. “I went to the mountains and looked down on the city. Wow, man, wow.”

INSIDE INSIGHT PARTY IN THE PLAZA â&#x20AC;¢ On the first Tuesday of the fall semester, students gathered at Unity Plaza for an official welcome back to campus party. Sponsored by the Spotlight Programs Board, it was the first of several Tuesday gatherings in the plaza that the organization is sponsoring throughout the school year.

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PHOTO BY DONTE BROWN (B.A. '17)

SUPPORT STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS Meet Josue Legentus. Josue is a two time recipient of the Alumni Association Scholarship for U.S. Military Veterans. Thanks to the generosity of alumni like you, he is successfully completing a degree in Computer Information Systems.

The Georgia State Alumni Association will provide approximately $65,000 in scholarship assistance to deserving students this year. Increasing alumni scholarships is an important goal for the Alumni Association. It helps Georgia State students become future alumni The Alumni Association has increased the number of scholarships awarded each year. Help us keep the momentum going - Donate Today!

For a complete listing of scholarships offered by the Alumni Association visit: pantheralumni.com/scholarships

Make a difference, donate to Alumni Association scholarships at pantheralumni.com

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LIBERTY MO PERMIT NO. 219

Georgia State University Magazine Department of Public Relations and Marketing Communications P.O. Box 3983, Atlanta, GA 30302-3983